If the gay interest is to prosper,it is in some land where reason,science and education predominate.Not in a place peopled by cultureless serfs giving to superstition and religious faith a large support which no longer exists in other western societies.

I suppose this is the main reason why millions of gays are migrating from the "Bible belt" to the coasts - there is little doubt that NY and SF are sufficiently progressive. However, the religious fundamentalists everywhere are raising their heads again - even in the enlightened Europe, one can witness their growing activities. In South- and East Europe they are even dominant. It is nowadays modern to be a professing Christian or a Moslem - this gives one certain areal of morality and a glance of martyrdom.

Mr. Besen is going to do an important job, and I am sure that if he accomplishes what he is aiming, he will rescue many young souls from being destroyed.

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"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right!" Salvor Hardin

Probably, the best possibility to make Ex-gay brainwashers stop their dangerous activities is to sue them for psychological abuse and mailpractice. Because the victims are probably mostly young, it is in the hand of LGBT organizations to initiate such law suits on behalf of ex-captives.

In the US,this would amount at taking on religion and churches,which both enjoy a status ressembling the one of sovereign immunity.If the gay interest is to prosper,it is in some land where reason,science and education predominate.Not in a place peopled by cultureless serfs giving to superstition and religious faith a large support which no longer exists in other western societies.

Do agitators of Ex-gay movement have access to public schools? This is incredible - though, I have heard some particularly smart politicians suggest "intelligent design" to be taught in schools, too.

Probably, the best possibility to make Ex-gay brainwashers stop their dangerous activities is to sue them for psychological abuse and mailpractice. Because the victims are probably mostly young, it is in the hand of LGBT organizations to initiate such law suits on behalf of ex-captives.

I am not sure how widespread their access to public schools is. Their attempts have become increasingly common, however. While the "intelligent design" issue has for the most part failed, the ex-gays do appear to be attempting to force their inclusion in public schools through threats of ruinous lawsuits with the legal assistance of the Liberty Council -- all in the name of "freedom of speech" and "tolerance" of their religious views. The strategy actually has potential, and it is good that Besen has thought to counter it.

The enemies of the gay people need to be countered on every front. When they bully corporations with letter-writing campaigns and boycotts, the gay people must counter with their own. When the Religious Right threatens lawsuits, the gay people must threaten their own.

The 10-point plan sounds well-thought and suitable to save lives of many young gays. I found the following passage of particular interest:

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III. LANDMARK LEGAL STRATEGY

The ex-gay ministries are vulnerable to potential lawsuits because they abuse victims and even cause sucides. TWO will create a Legal Advisory Board by working with GLBT legal organizations. This Legal Board would play defense against the latest ex-gay strategy, which is to partner with Jerry Falwell’s Liberty Counsel in an effort to intimidate school districts into including ex-gays in public school curriculums.

Do agitators of Ex-gay movement have access to public schools? This is incredible - though, I have heard some particularly smart politicians suggest "intelligent design" to be taught in schools, too.

Probably, the best possibility to make Ex-gay brainwashers stop their dangerous activities is to sue them for psychological abuse and mailpractice. Because the victims are probably mostly young, it is in the hand of LGBT organizations to initiate such law suits on behalf of ex-captives.

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"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right!" Salvor Hardin

Lest one be deceived into believing that the ex-gay movement is a trivial assemblage of madmen, Mr. Besen hi-lights the group's political activities in this week's weekly column:

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This week, I am starting a non-profit organization, Truth Wins OUT to combat right wing misinformation campaigns, particularly the ex-gay hoax. As the author of "Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth," I have long witnessed how these groups shatter families and ruin lives. But, conversion therapy has mostly been the domain of the insane and a hobby for right wing fringe groups that exploited homosexuals with low self-esteem for political gain.

This changed on June 5 when President Bush invited Alan Chambers, President of Exodus International, the nation's largest ex-gay group, to a White House press conference supporting the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would prohibit same-sex marriage in the U.S. Constitution.

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For decades, Exodus International had disingenuously claimed that it had no agenda but to "change" gay people into heterosexuals. But now this pretense has been stripped away as we see that its real aim is to change laws so that GLBT people will remain a persecuted minority.

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Exodus has even worked to oppose laws that would penalize gay bashing. A staff member appeared in an ad targeting senators voting on hate crimes legislation that read: "Hate crime laws say we were more valuable as homosexuals than we are now as former homosexuals."

Although Exodus leaders pretend they love openly gay people, their true feelings are transparent. "As a property owner of Orlando, I wouldn't rent to someone who is gay any more than I would rent to a person who is a practicing witch," Chambers once lovingly told an Orlando newspaper.

The reason the president is embracing Exodus is because polls show that Americans who believe homosexuality can be cured are far more likely to support anti-gay legislation. For example, a November 2004 Lake, Snell, Perry and Associates poll shows that 79 percent of people who think homosexuality is inborn support civil unions or marriage equality. Among those who believe sexual orientation is a choice, only 22 percent support civil unions or marriage rights.

It is abundantly clear that the ex-gay ministries are the centerpiece of the right wing's culture war against gay people. Exodus has 12 full-time staffers dedicated to demeaning and dehumanizing GLBT Americans. The gay community has not one full-time individual to counter this propaganda. I am starting Truth Wins OUT (www.truthwinsout.org) to counter this misinformation and level the playing field.

Have you seen the recent polls? Conservative support rising in Québec. Look out!

I highly appreciate the kind of freedom as well as the stimulating intellectual environment I enjoy as a gay in Canada and in Quebec.But I have never taken that situation for granted,and thus likely to last forever.Through this warning of yours,you are already preaching to a convert.

Sadly, I must report that the situation in the province of Alberta regarding the ex-gay phenomenon more closely resembles the situation that pertains in the very worst parts of the United States. Fortunately, the state of family law, even in Alberta, is such that these young people have defenders. The chief problem is in communicating the availability of defence.

Alberta is not likely to impose its ways on the rest of the country,even though it has oil.And Quebec - where I live and which has no conservative constituency either political or cultural - as the option of seceding from Canada anyway,thus making of Alberta the distant part of another country.

Sadly, I must report that the situation in the province of Alberta regarding the ex-gay phenomenon more closely resembles the situation that pertains in the very worst parts of the United States. Fortunately, the state of family law, even in Alberta, is such that these young people have defenders. The chief problem is in communicating the availability of defence.

I have been researching the "ex-gay" movement in Europe since moving back here in February and have so far found no overt signs of existence, which does not, however, mean that they are not stealthily and under some other guise operating here, especially in Eastern Europe. I will continue to research the topic and post any eventual findings. This is a largely U.S.-borne phenomenon which most of the rest of the world would not countenance.

The situation in Canada is more or less the same as in Europe.The interference of religion in political or social matters is generally not accepted by the population.Quebec has a well and longtime established anti-church mentality.

I have been researching the "ex-gay" movement in Europe since moving back here in February and have so far found no overt signs of existence, which does not, however, mean that they are not stealthily and under some other guise operating here, especially in Eastern Europe. I will continue to research the topic and post any eventual findings. This is a largely U.S.-borne phenomenon which most of the rest of the world would not countenance. Stories continue to surface from escaped would-be "converts" detailing painful "treatment" involving testicular shocks, eyelid-props, and many of the bizarre practices we saw in Stanely Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066921/) so many years ago.

A friend of mine was once "treated" to an "intervention" by his family; he came home from a date to find a fire-and-brimstone-breathing Baptist minister with his whole family waiting for him. After explaining that he would be damned to eternal hellfire (what a concept; who could afford the fuel bill?) he was whisked away in a panel van to the wilds of Iowa where he was first "indoctrinated" and then subjected to "electroshock therapy." He was able to escape a few days later and hitchhiked his way to my place in Chicago at the time, shaken but not sirred (pardon the pun). As he was only 17, he was not in a legal position to do much, especially as his own family had staged the entire charade and paid for the "treatment."

He now lives with his gay lover in Nebraska and has turned out to be a nice, healthy "normal" queer with no desire to be converted or "ex-gayed" or anything remotely similar. The damage these people are doing to youths wherever they are is immeasurable.

The experience gives them right: homosexuals of course are able to enchant an innocent female and even make her pregnant a couple of times. The other question is, of course, whether these homos are happy with their sexual live, but they are anyway not supposed to be, so it hardly matters.

With all due respect,I do not even wonder if they are happy.I wonder if they are even gay.

The catholic sexual morals contemplate any joyful, non-procreative sexuality ab initio as a sin, therefore it does not matter whether you are a hetero or a homo: both are expected to perform their duties even in a loveless marriage till the end of their days. As to my knowledge, there is also a diffuse consensus amongst the catholics that homosexuals can "work" on their sexuality and become eligible then to a "normal family life", with a wife and a couple of kids. The experience gives them right: homosexuals of course are able to enchant an innocent female and even make her pregnant a couple of times. The other question is, of course, whether these homos are happy with their sexual live, but they are anyway not supposed to be, so it hardly matters.

The "Ex-gay" movement didn't find as much attention in Europe, as in the US, probably because the general political climate in Europe is currently somewhat different from the US. You must know, it is enourmously advantageous not to have ambitions as a super-power: the governments are then expected to care about the well-being of its own citizens, instead of causing problems to other countries. Another reason is, of course, that in Europe people mostly live in urban areas, making it easier to escape the contact to one's baptist family.

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"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right!" Salvor Hardin

(Miami, Florida) A report released Thursday says that the so-called ex-gay movement is turning from attempting to convert gay adults to heterosexuality and is now focusing on gay teens.

Called 'Youth in the Crosshairs' the report was prepared by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. It says that groups such as Exodus International and Focus on the Family now recommend "prevention" and conversion therapy "treatments".

Such efforts have been discredited by medical experts including the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association.

"Whether through ex-gay teen programs or traveling ex-gay conferences like Focus on the Family's Love Won Out ex-gay programs are recommending that parents commit their children to treatment of 'prehomosexuality' even if it is against their children's wishes. Heterosexual youth are also being recruited in schools and churches to spread the message that homosexuality is a treatable mental illness," the report says.

"One of the most disturbing accounts in this report is a case involving a 5-year-old boy who was subjected to conversion therapy to address 'prehomosexuality.' The case involves a psychologist who claims that his theories and treatments are scientific," said study co-author Jason Cianciotto, the Policy Institute's research director. "To the contrary, conversion therapy is opposed by nearly every medical and mental health professional association, including the American Academy of Pediatrics."

A study of 202 former conversion therapy clients published in 2002 reported that 176 participants experienced significant harm, including depression, social isolation, low self-esteem, internalized homophobia and even attempted suicide. The study also found ethical concerns and violations, including the use of false and prejudicial information disguised as science to convince clients that they needed treatment.

"It is morally repugnant and downright dangerous the way these extremists demonize young people and prey on the fears of parents through their so-called ex-gay programs," said Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. "This report exposes the extent to which these zealots will go, including reformulating their ex-gay snake oil at the expense of vulnerable children and young adults."

The report was released in Miami in conjunction with the Winter Party Festival which the NGLT sponsors.